Safeguard

1. What is Safeguard? [Source: WotC]
   Safeguard is a new keyword ability that limits how much damage can be done to a character that’s undamaged.
2. Does Safeguard apply to all damage or just attack damage? [Source: WotC]
   All damage, including damage done by Actions or other abilities.
3. Does Safeguard work if something tries to move a damage counter onto the character while it’s undamaged? [Source: WotC]
   No. Moving damage counters doesn’t count as damaging the character, although after the damage counter is moved, the character will be damaged and Safeguard will no longer work. Sneaky!
4. Can Safeguard apply to the same character more than once? [Source: WotC]
   Yes. Safeguard works as long as the character is currently undamaged, even if it was previously damaged in the game. If you repair that damage, Safeguard can cushion another blow.
5. What happens when I play Medic's Protective Field on Private Smokescreen (Alt Mode)? [Source: WotC]
   Because the Safeguard value is the same, having two instances of it has no additional effect. Smokescreen can’t take more than 3 damage if undamaged. However, if a character has two instances of Safeguard with different values, the lowest value wins. For example, if a character has Safeguard 1 and Safeguard 3, that character can’t take more than 1 damage if undamaged.
6. Is Pierce damage still considered attack damage? For example, if someone is attacking me with Pierce 4 against a character like Insecticon Skrapnel whose text is “can’t take more than 3 damage during an attack”, does that mean even though they have Pierce 4 after adding attack damage, would they only do 3, or would they do 4? [Source: WotC]
   Pierce is an ability that applies to attack damage. But, effects like Insecticon Skrapnel’s or the Safeguard ability will still apply. In your example, Skrapnel would take only 3 damage.
7. Beginning player here, not sure where else to go for clarification in general. My buddy and I played a killer game with Insecticons (me) v Special Ops Specialists (buddy). All three of his characters had Safeguard. I swung into one of them (undamaged) with Raider Kickback (bot) and flipped one blue and several orange. My thinking was the one damage from Kickback's ability would eliminate the Safeguard, thus allowing all combat damage to be applied. Then came the confusion. I believe his thinking was that all the damage came at once, prevented to some degree by Safeguard. After scouring stupid Google for help to no avail, I decided to simply concede to his perspective and move the game along. He won, but it was close, and it would have been a drastically different story had all that combat damage been applied. [Source: WotC]
   Kickback’s ability does 1 Damage before Attack damage is applied, thus disabling Safeguard. Congratulations on your crushing theoretical victory!
8. How does Steamroll and Grimlock, Dinobot Leader's bot mode ability work when KO'ing an undamaged character with Safeguard? [Source: Aequitas]
   Attempting to Steamroll into an undamaged character with three health, such as Slammer, Combat Drone, and Safeguard 3 (for example Medic's Protective Field) will first see the damage reduced to 3 damage, and then KO the defender. No additional attack damage would be available to be steamrolled into another enemy.